Can’t Think Of A Title

Did some cycling last weekend. Rode the cheap ($500 is cheap for a road bike) old Giant OCR. That bike has over 5000 miles on it now and still feels great. Except that the new saddle I put on toward the end of last season is giving me bum pain. The bike probably needs some work, but I don’t have the money for that now. Last weekend was record-breakingly warm, upper 80s, but there were still little patches of very dirty snow here and there on shaded roadsides. The winters are pretty hard on the paved roads up in northern New England. Frost heaves are horrendous as winter loosens its grip.

Yellow arrows painted on road point to storm drains. Obvious.

Not obvious: the meaning of this graffitum. Seen at Sunapee State Park beach during bike ride.

The roads are just about back to normal, but with new fissures and faults. Spring is thoroughly underway with loud choruses of birdsong most mornings. Our off-kilter world always seems to get a little encouragement as this favorite season unfolds.

Oliver puts his shoulder into getting the Earth back on kilter. The planet needs a nudge.

Stupid planet! Why won’t you give over? Hard work.

I think a combination of Earth Day, the anaerobic antarctic microbes, and the swine flu have all ganged up on my psyche, along with the conclusion of the academic year. It’s not a feeling of malaise, but rather a falling feeling I can’t quite pin down. And there was this article in Wired magazine about the Georgia Guidestones. And a music mix CD from a friend at work. It was XTC. An amazing musical group I’d managed to completely ignore for like 30 years. All these things add up.

zzzzzzZZZZZZAP! It’s lucky there’s flowers around …

… and pepper seedlings …

The garden is coming along nicely. But that deserves a dedicated post I think. I have to go get ready for work now. Busy days up through final exams, commencement, and then the big exhale before summer projects start.

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Drat. Your pepper seedlings are looking better than mine. Ours seem to have stopped growing. Maybe it was last Friday when the greenhouse hit 125 degrees. Doh!

Peppers grow pretty slowly but also do really well in the heat, as long as there is enough moisture. An important greenhouse design element is how to release some of the heat that builds up. Shade cloth is a common solution. We happen to have some well-placed trees next to ours that give shade at about 2:00 in the afternoon. That was not planning BTW. Serendipity. 🙂

Ohhh! Seedlings! Be still my green heart!
I love your gardening posts, I live vicariously through them. Though this year I have managed to commandeer a friend’s vegetable AND flower gardens. Mahahaha.
This being the Great White North though, it isn’t safe to plant yet. Frost still threatens to rear it’s ugly head til about mid-May. Boooo frost!
More gardening posts please David!

Hi Talea, thanks for commenting. We had a frost last night, but only garlic, onions, peas, and cabbage/cauliflowers are out now, so no damage. By “commandeer” I guess you mean “weed”, huh? There will be more gardening posts so no worries there. Happy Spring!

For some reason, I always have to chuckle when I hear ‘frost heaves’. We had some doozies this year, too and I must say I’m fascinated how they went away or if the town did something somehow to flatten them? Anyway, according to my dad (a good libertarian) ROADS are the second most important responsibility of our federal government. Actually, I haven’t heard his speech in a few years so maybe he’s getting used to our new Prez… boy – what a rambling comment I’ve got here.

No worries, as it was a rambling post as usual. The frost heaves flatten out all by themselves as the roadbed defrosts. Because it is kept clear of snow it can freeze pretty deep, and any moisture that seeps in through the cracks freezes and expands the roadbed beneath the pavement. As it thaws it settles back down. Did I overexplain that well enough? I agree with your dad about the roads, but wonder what is number one in that priority list? I’m pretty happy with Obama so far, but have republican friends that are hunkering down for the apocalypse.

It’s always hard to think of a title, isn’t it? The pepper seedlings look great! I’ve only tried planting peppers once, but they were far too much work to keep alive, Maybe the Oregon climate doesn’t agree with them, are they any easier on the East coast?

Usually titles come to me more easily than the rest of the post.

Peppers like hot sunny weather, so yes, Oregon climate (west of the Cascades) is probably not so great. We have very variable luck with our peppers from year to year. The normal yield is fairly modest. The seedlings are looking very nice this year, but unfortunately that guarantees nothing.